CLIENT:
Turtle Beach
sector:
E-commerce
FUNCTION:
Finance

Background

In 2014, Turtle Beach was a PE-backed designer and retailer/wholesaler of multi-console, high-end gaming headsets, selling direct to the consumer, as well as through leading retail outlets, such as PC World, Argos etc. The business’ mission is to help gamers optimise gaming performance, and it has a particular focus on exceptional sound quality.

The business is headquartered in the USA, and had no strategic financial capacity in Europe to help facilitate and fuel the growth journey that PE backer Stripes was anticipating.

As such, it was decided to appoint a European FD, who was:

  • Geographically close to the CEO Julian Woods, who was based in Basingstoke.
  • The right cultural fit, and had the right skill set for a newly PE-backed business, at the start of its next phase of growth.
  • Was relatively early in their career, and had the ambition and drive to ‘shake things up’ in order to effect business growth.

Journey

Rowan worked closely with Stripes, Turtle Beach HRD Kezban Terralavoro and CEO Julian Woods, to understand the Skills and experience, as well as personality and cultural fit, required for the new Finance Director.

As per the directive, Rowan was also restricted to looking for candidates who lived within an hour of Basingstoke, which is where Julian was based.

As experts in Executive Search and Assessment, Rowan:

  • Focused on early-stage finance professionals, who were either in their first FD position, or ready to make the step up for the first time.
  • Identified candidates with significant, relevant experience within e-commerce, wholesale and retail.
  • Used our ETP® (Evaluate. Test. Perform) assessment process to ensure candidates had not only the right skill set, but that their ambition matched that of Turtle Beach, and they were culturally aligned to both the business, and its PE backer Stripes.

As a result of this process, Karl Meier was appointed. Karl as a highly relevant candidate, having held Head of Finance positions at retailers Wiggle, Habitat, as well as more junior positions with B&Q.

Impact

Since joining the business, Karl has added a lot of value to Turtle Beach, and has effected significant change.

Karl:

  • Restructured and relocated the Finance Department from Darlington in the North-East, to Basingstoke, greatly strengthening the link between the Finance function and the C-Suite.
  • Contributed to Stripes’ exit, and the business’ floating on the NASDAQ.
  • Sold his shares for a profit and exited the business, and helping to facilitate CEO Julian Wood to do the same.
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